Dusty projects

Got up at 6am (as usual) this morning and the house was so quiet, it was eerie. Nothing at all, not even husband snoring! I check the clock and oh! power outage. DARN!!

Now I know why it was so quiet in the house. We always have the furnace's fan on to make the air circulate otherwise it gets muggy in the house. I was starting to feel it already. The power has been out for only 2 hours so far . Oh Gosh!

Got the kettle and stepped outside to heat the water the old fashion way.

There was a slight breeze but it was very humid. Yuck! Not opening the window. So now that I am armed with my coffee, what am I supposed to do? Can't finish laundry; can't bake breakfast. It's a good thing I did some muffins last night.

Zucchini muffins

Grabbed one and went downstairs. Looked around the sewing room and Oh no! I can't log in and see what's going on at Kathy's place and Cynthia's place. Double Darn!! It is my tradition to sip my coffee with these girls on Sunday morning.

I don't want to clean, it's Sunday morning. There's NO cleaning on Sunday morning! I've done enough on Saturday of that. It is getting so humid in the basement, it is now to the point of annoying me. I'm glistening, hahaha! Gosh, I need air.

Okay, let's find something to do. Think of something else. Then I spotted my new die-cut. Oh fun! Let's give this baby a try.

I haven't played with my big Sizzix in such a long time, it was dusty. Put some scrap on it and turned the handle. And ta-dah!Eh! What?

It didn't cut all the way through. What's with this? Well, that deflated my balloon quick enough, thank you. Took everything up and placed it back on the dusty shelf.

Siiiiggghhhhhhhhhh! What now? (The silence is deafening.) Oh, there's something.

I could kit some blocks from the 365 Challenge. I could use them as my leader-ender blocks. I haven't worked on this one in a very long time. Grab the box and oh, yes, it's dusty too, hahaha. Then, ... it dawn on me! The patterns are in the computer which is powered by ... ugh! electricity! ARRRRGH! Double triple darn!!

Come back electricity, I need you. I need my usual Sunday ritual. (gosh, maybe I am more OCD than I thought) And this silence is getting on my nerves!!!  I need to get busy, think of something else than the lack of sounds. Let's get another coffee.

The amount of dew this morning made it impossible to sit outside, which was a bummer because, by this time, it was nicer out. I'm thinking of all the slow stitching projects joining Kathy's place and ... oh wait! ... I DO have a slow stitching project. YAY!! Let's get that.

I unfold my Quilt of the Century and (cough, cough) it is so dusty. It has been waiting for some attention since August 31, 2016. Yep, two years, almost to the day.

This is the last thing I did with it. Remove all the "border" hexagons.


Now, Michelle from the Wednesday Sewing Club told me to add three hexagon on the sides to make them straighter. It will be easier to attached the last border to it. Sigh. Why have I removed them in the first place? Don't remember! Anywho!

Good thing I never got the chance to undo them as I am now piecing these back to the quilt. Ironic? (I am surprise at the speed I located these pieces, wow! Maybe I am more organized than I thought.)

But now that I have something to keep my hands busy, I feel better. :^) It's Sunday Zen Time again!! Ahhhh!



I'll join Kathy (Slow Sunday Stitching) and Cynthia (Oh Scrap!) whenever the electricity gets back.

Happy Sunday Morning to all.


;^)

Hi, Long Time No See

I haven't been ignoring you, sweet blogger friends, I have just been out of commission for a bit.

Now it's time to catch up and see what I did managed to do.

So I had a flimsy that looked like this the last time I posted. It had its first border on and was looking for a second one.

After some tester blocks that wanna-look-like cogs, my son and I have settled on one design. Yeah, I went with his idea since it is his quilt.

Then, it needed some corner blocks. Back to the drawing board. I was thinking real cogs this time. My son too but apparently REAL cogs are not crooked. Who knew?

Guess which one is my drawing?


Machine appliqued cogs.

They aren't as straight as my son's drawing it but they're okay.

Did some sewing on the back porch once the sun was out of the corner. It is still so hot around here but I won't complain as I live in Canada and we all know what's coming next. ANYwho! So, did some sewing in the shades. Also did a pajama for son, that's the fabric you see hanging from the table and on top the chair. It's a patchwork pajama to match the quilt, lol.



Finally did the last border and ta-dahhhhh!

Oh look! I think the border is shy. Let's try again.



Ta-dah!

I love this picture with the sun through the quilt.

and the corner block. Not bad at all. Now I need to bring the ironing board back out again and give this quilt a good press.

Of all the fabrics I cut, this is what is left. Not bad at all.

I'll be piecing a backing for this huge quilt (which was supposed to be a twin size) at 93 X 77 inches. Oh yes, it'll be a scrappy backing. :^D


On another note:

I have started some sew-a-long projects and signed up for some de-stashing projects. You might have noticed that I am not participating much anymore. I took a real good look at myself and said: "You can't do like them, (other bloggers) you are still working full time. And have children at home. (Okay, they are adults but they are still my children and they still live here. So it counts.) You need to slow down and do things at your own pace. You can't do as much as they do in their sewing room. You put too much stress on yourself trying to finish projects in time and you feel like dirt when you fail. So stop this."

Now this said, I have decided to quit Scrap Attack which I loved. Sorry, Sarah. It is a great idea and I am keeping my little jar of challenges. I might get back on the wagon someday. I will participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge whenever I can and not try to make in on every Saturday (because I am obviously failing at that).

There is so many wonderful linking party out there but I need to pace myself. Please understand that I still love, love, love to see what you're making and to leave you comments. I still love your visits and appreciate your comments so much. I will just take it down a notch or two for awhile. Hopefully it's a short while.


Bye for now.

Don't forget to smile. The world does need the warmth of your smile.


;^)

Standing at the Cutting Board

So there I was at the cutting board and many ideas were sprouting in my head.

"Stay focus, girl. You'll never finish this if you're all over the place."

After ten minutes, I went upstairs, grabbed my son by the arm, removed the headset from his head, towed him down to the sewing room by the sleeve and asked "what do you think?" (With a white sashing between each cog, it would be perfect. This one is only 2.5 inches in height unfinished.)

Instead of like this 

A discussion followed about my different ideas. I didn't had to sew a tester block for all my ideas as he was quick (surprisingly) to decide what he wanted.

He picked the same one as before (ugh!) but on a smaller scale. The "teeth of the cog" are only 1 3/4 inches wide by 3.5 long.

I dug up the leftover pieces of the first crumb quilt's border.

and chopped them down to size.

Then I got lots of fabric out to cut, cut, cut and ... maybe I can do this outside? Darn, too windy!!

Needed to cut, cut and cut more of the longer pieces too.

Now I can sit and sew ... but it's so nice outside!!!  Hmmmmm.....


;^)


Joining Cynthia for Oh Scrap! Come see the wonders others are making.

In the Shades

Yes, you've heard me complain about how hot it is at the moment in Canada but I want to finish the flannel quilt for my son.  Our emblem is the beaver for good reasons; we don't give up easily.  Or maybe I'm stubborn.

I had a lot of ironing to do. I mean, an entire quilt to press ... in the heat. No way, I am staying in the basement as I am stuck indoor all week long at work. So what's a girl to do when it gets hot ... she gets smart.

I brought everything outside ... in the shades of a maple tree. This maple tree might not be very big but it did a good job at keeping me cool. (Never mind the stack of branches in the background. It's not from our trees.)

The reverse and ...

... the front. Phew! Done.


Then, the inner red border got on, either early in the morning or very late at night.

Here's a better view of the robot fabric.

And now for the outer border ... what do to?

I thought of Piano keys as I like it when others do this kind of border. Pinterest has so many suggestions that I got lost and also lost a few hours of daylight. Darn!

A blogger friend suggested something different that got my cogs going. You know I love different.


This is what she said:

1. 
   gayle7 July 2018 at 17:38

   I've been living in that same oven! Today it only got up to 80, and it felt like a cool spell! 8)
   Maybe you can make the piano keys look like cogs?
   |_|____|
   |____|_|
   |_|____|
   |____|_|

Well! Isn't that smart!! Thanks Gayle! ♥
So a quick drawing. 

Plan A : just straight

Plan B : emerging together

Son (the future owner of the quilt in question) says he prefers Plan A but could I do it all in gray instead of all kind of colors? No, as I don't have a lot of gray flannel and it is a colorful quilt. 

So I did a test block

No sure I like it. :(
This block measures 10.5" long. I'll have to measure the quilt and see how it will fit. I have an idea for the corners but maybe ... if I try it like ....

Back to the cutting board.

See you soon.

;^)


Joining Cynthia for Oh Scrap! 

Red Bots

Last week, the weather was unbelievable high in this region, like so many other places too. Blame it on my age, or maybe because I'm Canadian and we usually don't see these temps for so long, or maybe it's my meds but, regardless, I was a big zero. I was very uncomfortable in the humidity and didn't accomplished much ... but I managed to sew anyway. Sewing flannels on top of that, ha!

Ta-Dah!
All the centres for the third crumb quilts are done. Yup! All 88 of them! This one is for my DS#3.

Whoohoo!!

Some 17 centres were already sewn into blocks and some more will get finished this weekend. Unknown to me, I feel like I was set up on a mission. Who set me up like this?


Because this weekend, the temperature is much nicer, I can turn the iron on and press all the seams of last week top.

And then the red border will enter the scene.

I choose this print for DS#2 as he is contending to become an engineer. He loves motors and moving parts and oh! the junk  wiring  gears  parts on his desk!!
I'm still not sure how to finish this quilt but I like the idea of piano keys ... hmmm, we'll see.

Have an awesome day.

;^)

Joining Angela at Soscrappy
Joining Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework